Another one nearly gone!

Been thinking about this year and all in all its not been a bad year.

Obviously the biggest disaster was the smash up of the GT6. Dave Picton is now finishing the car, and is making a great job of her, it will definitely be better. I hope to see the car on the 28th.

Probably the worse moment was seeing all the CT crews start off for the 10CR, the first one I have missed and from what I have observed, the best one. Finance issues (GT6 repair money) meaning that I could not afford to go. Talking with Dave Kent who is my 10CR co-driver we will def. be on the next one.

The Little Spitfire goes from strength to strength and once I have the new engine running I look forward to driving that car, should be a giggle.

My Triumph plans for 2012 obviously include the RBRR. I will also take part in the HCR, hopefully with Doug and Katie again, I had a great time last time with them-laughing is so good for you! Then up to Scotland for the IAE, I hope to take the GT6 and really give it a go to win. Mike and Matt Helm have won the last two, time for a change! I will also take part in the CT Autosolo mini series using the Spittie. No money for a LSD this year, but I will look at other ways of making the car competitive-lightness? Of course as many have realised, honing one's driving always helps!!!

So far this Xmas the best thing was watching TOTP2 on BBC2 the other night. Simple reason for this was watching the retrieved footage of David Bowie performing 'The Jean Genie', a wonderment considering the tepid footage that TOTP has provided over the years. There has been a lot of interest in this Bowie performance on the news and within the press. What was really marked about the TOTP programme was how rubbish all the so called current music of today looked in comparison to Bowie (Mark Radcliffe who was doing the voice over, stated that the footage had 'Raw Power'- spot on Mark and a nice Iggy Pop link), the most derisible being the Maria Carey/Justin Beiber film they showed, excrement or what-Maria is so sexy-er yes she is if you are into synthetic baby dolls who look like they have had a bit of surgery. Talking of so called 'Singers', here's one who was talented-Amy Winehouse was shown from 2006 dueting with Paul Weller, total class and very sexy-Amy that is!

We could really do with some new product from Mr Bowie at present! Want some good music from 2011??-PJ Harvey's record 'Let England Shake', The Horrors 'Skying' (How good is that, all a bit shocking an English band (other than Radiohead), that actually has some 'space' within the music) and Magazine's 'No thyself'.

Biggest downer of the year, simple, the so called 'Riots'. That was'nt rioting, that was just violence and shoplifting, shame on those who took part. I hope that the people who did this act look at what is happening in places like Egypt and feel ashamed when they see what is like to be really downtrodden.

Also, how nice to see the Murdoch empire getting some severe grief at present, after years of The Sun and 'giving the people what they want', its brilliant to see how corrupt an organisation it seems-take them down! Does anyone miss 'The News of the World'?

So 2011, yeah not that bad!

Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run and all that! Part One

On the eve of the RBRR announcement within the November edition of Club Triumph's bi-monthly magazine 'Club Torque' I thought it would be good to describe my antics on the 7no RBRR events that I have taken part in since 1998.

To say that the RBRR has been life changing is an understatement, through taking part I have met some of the nicest and most interesting people, many have gone on to become very good friends. Since 2004 I have been the main organiser of the event, a role that I feel honoured to undertake for Club Triumph. When entering in 2000 I mentioned to Derek Pollock, for years the main man behind the event that if he needed help I would be pleased to help, from this it was decided that I would help out in 2002 with a view to taking on the main role in 2004. Blimey, from this small acorn I become Club Triumph's Secretary in 2005, another role that I feel honoured to do. Now, I can say that CT and the RBRR have dominated my private life!

We expect the magazine which will contain the Announcement, Entry Form and event description to dropping through doorsteps this weekend. By writing about my experiences I hope to encourage some reading this to attempt an event that I consider to be the best on offer to Triumph car owners throughout the world.

1998
I entered this my first RBRR at a late stage, the RBRR was not so popular in those days and one could enter right up to 2 weeks before the start. I managed to rope my good mate Diz Stoner in as a co-driver and started planning for the event, the first part being to attend the Drivers Meeting at The Plough pub in Crews Hill. This was an eye opener, especially getting to meet some of the regular RBRR entrants, many seeming to be very friendly one or two seeming to be a bit weird (this has not changed!!!!).
Come the event I had done a fair amount of preparation work to my GT6, the only concern being that the temperature gauge seemed to read that the car was running very hot, this proving to be bogus. Getting to the start was fun as the bottom hose started to weep (good prep eh!), luckily Six Spares (I wonder how Bill Livingstone is these days) used to be around then so a quick diversion was made to Twickenham to buy a set of hoses and then onto the start. On arrival the Car Park and Signing-In office all looked to be fun, a heady mix of good cheer and panic, something that is on show at every RBRR.
Leaving The Plough we got into the swing of the event and soon reached Blyth Services, driving into the services to be met with most of the entry already there, many cars did seem to have their bonnets up, a few up in the air with legs dangling out on the tarmac surface!
We signed in and got going both agreeing that the set speed limit should be 70mph, no need to speed as the event was a 'Reliability Run'. In life one has a few moments that can change the course of how its all going and I encountered one of those just as we went past the cooling towers beside the A1 at I think Wetherby. In the rear view mirror I became aware of the some yellow headlights with many a set of dim Lucas headlights tailing behind. This being a yellow a TR3A driven by Andy Flexney, he was being pursued by 5 or 6 big Saloons all doing speeds considerably higher that our paltry 70mph. This was a wonderful sight and sound, the exhausts of the cars echoing that marvellous noise that old cars especially six cylinder cars make at about 4000rpm, to say that I was entranced is an understatement and to show that a GT6 could match this speed we joined in, bloody good fun! Diz reminded me that the event was a Reliability Run and if we were not careful we would have problems, so I backed off at Scotch Corner.
The rest of the event was great fun, the car going well and no real issues apart from the need to replenish the oil every so often, I had rebuilt the engine back in 1991 and she was starting to use oil.
I recently read on the CT forum some advice given by Darren Sharp in that one should be careful in who they choose to be a Co-Driver, my 1998 experiences underline that fact. Diz is one of my best mates, we have been friends since 1983, he has owned two Triumph cars, a mk3 GT6 and a TR6, yet we fell out on the event. At a RBRR control we went our seperate ways for 15mins to reduce the tension that had been building for sometime and all was good after that, but it just goes to show how one should be careful about the choice of co-driver, probably the most important part of the planning before the event. Diz admitted after the event that he had not enjoyed the experience and would not attempt the RBRR again, he remains to this day one of my best friends and a real buddy, however the RBRR did test our friendship. I think this also cured him of a like for old cars, since then he seems to have bought moderns!
By the far the best aspects of the event were the scenery, the roads that we used and the biggest factor the camaderie amongst all crews, fantastic stuff!
So the 1998 RBRR was a real eye opener and considering the fact that before the event I was only going to do one RBRR I realised that I was hooked!. As soon as the event was over I was ready for the next one in 2000, the only downer being the 2 year interval!

1998 Control list
Blyth Services, A1
Bishops Garage, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
BP Garage, Perth
Thrumster Garage
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Macrae and Dick Garage, Inverness
Morrisons Garage, Stirling
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
Honda Garage, Dorchester
Fleet Services,M3

Total Mileage 1920.


2000
As soon as the 2000 form came out I got my entry in fearing that an event that was so good would be quickly oversubscribed, strangely to my way of thinking not the case!
Once again, I was using the GT6 (At this point I only owned one road going Triumph) and for this one I had roped in another old friend Richard Arthers, another of my old mates who had Triumph experience having owned a mk1 Vitesse and a mk2 saloon.
The Drivers Meeting was attended and apart from a few Control changes and that the we were going to Wales, the event looked similar. By going to Wales, M5 use was reduced, for sure the worse part of the 1998 event.
Yet again, the start atmosphere was superb, in fact the whole event was brilliant and I found it much easier than the 1998 run, obviously down to the fact that I knew what to expect and we had prepared to a better standard.
Mechanically the only bad aspect of the RBRR was that we lost overdrive, later found to be a worn out inhibitor switch. The event was again dominated by big saloons dashing past quaking the GT6 in their wake, again impressive. We had pulled over in a lay-by on the Forest of Dean section, but found sleep was impossible as it seemed that most of the Triumphs were being knocked down a gear to increase the noise and wake us up, this is obviously not the case, but it felt so at the time! It must be pointed out that a good 15 min kip does wonders when the old eyes are shutting!
Best parts of the event were definately seeing 60 or so Triumph cars being used, the roads being dominated by the cars. I cannot describe how good this is to see, usually the only time one sees lots of them together is parked in a field, simply put, cars are meant to be used!

Controls
Blyth Services A1
Bishops Garage, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
BP Garage, Perth
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge
Morrison's Garage, Stirling
Oswestry Services, A5
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
Dartmoor Lodge, Ashburton
Fleet Services, M3

Total mileage 1906.


2002
For this my 3rd RBRR I teamed up again with my old mate Richard, as previously done using the GT6. The whole event was once again superb, the car went very well and apart from the addtion of some fluids nothing was done to her. The driving was as usual spirited,especially in Scotland and Wales. Entry was larger than previous years, it seemed that many were starting to realise what a top event the RBRR is for Triumph cars.
Once again the event went through a nice section of Wales, using the glorious A466 from Monmouth to Chepstow.
Mention should be made of possibly two of the UKs best roads that has featured in nearly all the RBRRs, these are the B871 and the A836. Long sections of these are single tracked and one can see for some distance making it possible for one to get a good lick of speed up, its like driving a rally stage!!!! The drive along this road was memorable as I was harried by James Elliott and co. of Classic and Sportscar in his mk1 Pi, they made mincemeat of us.
Richard did a great job driving the GT6, in fact he drove more than me, I really enjoy being driven in my cars by someone who knows what they are doing. The GT6 really is a great car for the RBRR, its small and compact yet has gearing that makes long distance driving a piece of cake. Richard was at this time a really good driver and within the first 500 miles was handling the car with aplomb. One of the overlooked aspects of the RBRR is that one really does get so in tune with the car, its ironic that maybe some of the roads at the end are not as good was those encountered in Scotland, just as one can really drive the car the road quality peters out!

The 2002 event was entered by Martin Randle using his white TR7 after completing the event in 2000 in his mk1 Vitesse. He came to the conclusion that it was sad that we had to wait for 2 years for the next RBRR so came up with the basis of an event that morphed into the 10 Countries Run.

Controls
Same as 2000


Total mileage less at 1899?


2004

Umm, a new co driver as Richard by this time had buggered off to Australia, so I managed to press gang a mate from work called Howard Riddell. Howard grew up driving Minis and Morris Minors so I felt he would be cool behind the wheel of the GT6. This he was, however as being a bit larger than me at 6ft 1in tall he did struggle, GT6s are really made for those of 5ft 8in and weighing 11 stone! Yet again the big saloon was dominating the event, however my GT6 seemed ok and it seemed that a number of other GT6 owners had decided to join the fray!
This was my first RBRR as the main man and boy did it seem different, the whole event being a bit nerve wracking. I can't really remember any of the driving other than the GT6 did very well. We had a number of new controls at Avon Heathh Country Park in Dorset and the race circuit at Goodwood. To get to Goodwood we used the old A30 from Salisbury to Stockbridge and beyond before dropping down to Winchester and taking the A272 towards Petersfield and the B2141 to Lavant. These roads were great and gave a last thrill before the end something I felt missing from the RBRR. However of course we then had to endure more of the M25, still a traffic jam is a great place to get some kip!
At this time I had bought the 2.5 so was well aware how cool and suitable for the RBRR that car would be, still can a saloon keep up with a well driven GT6, umm, the answer is probably yes!


Controls
Blythe Services, A1
Bishops Garage, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
Inveralmond Services, Perth
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge
Morrison's Garage, Stirling
Oswestry Services, A5
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
Dartmoor Lodge, Ashburton
Avon Heath Country Park, Ferndown
Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit

Total mileage 1931

2006

Blimey I think I was starting to get the hang of this event. Basically get some sleep before the event and use a car that has been well used before, in the words of many a fool, simple stuff! Er no, the GT6 did not behave very well. the rocker gear was showing alot of wear and needed constant adjustment during the event, as the engine was always warm it was a bugger of a job, but hey hey we finished!
I'd roped my younger sister Judy in as my co driver, however as she had young kids at this point she was not sleeping that well and seemed to spend the whole event asleep! Judy being a respectful type was very concerned about how she drove the car, I told her not to worry she could rag the arse of the thing, she did not need a second invite! My main memory of the event was seeing Dave Langrick chatting her up at one of the stops: David, she is a married woman!!!
Yet again the RBRR proved to be a top event and Judy told me weeks later that she thoroughly enjoyed the event, this was marvellous as my family had started to worry about my urge to undertake the RBRR every two years, at last a family ally!
By this time we had started to use the Pimperne stop that was run by the Southern group of the Club and jeez did they do us proud, the cakes were superb. In fact, looking at a few of the CT regulars I am now worried about this as many seem to have carried on eating the cakes and are starting to show the results of this activity!
The biggest shame about the 2006 event was that we could not use Bishops Garage in Corbridge, the event had out grown this atmospheric place, a real pity. To make up for this we managed to get the owner of the pub next door to Bishops to use his car park. This was fine apart from the fact that the owner was celebrating his Birthday on the Fridaynight of the run, something he forgot to tell me and decided to go out on the drink, by the time we all rocked up he was shall we say inebriated, not a help! Anyway no one seemed to notice, however yet again we did block the whole road up again!!!
All in all a good event and some valuable lessons were learnt about organising an event such as the RBRR.


2006 Controls
Blyth Services A1
The Angel Inn, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge
Morrison's Garage. Stirling
Lancaster Services, M6
Gledrid Services,Chirk, near Oswestry
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
The Dartmoor Lodge, Ashburton
Pimperne Village Hall, Pimperne, near Blandford Forum
Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit

Total Mileage 1965

Part two in a day or so.

Sometime since I last blogged, so as sitting at home recovering from a minor operation I thought I'd better type something!

The GT6 is at Dave Picton's establishment being repaired following the June incident. My word this whole episode has been an eye opener, no more driving of the old cars unless covered by an agreed value policy! Dave Picton was very helpful and helped to get my insurers to agree to a higher value than originally offered, however the salvage percentage of 30% was a bit strong.

Anyway enough of the boring stuff, the car has been nearly fully rebuilt, as well as the rear panels and wings and new bonnet the car has now received rebuilt doors and new outer sills in an attempt to tidy up the poor gaps that existed at the door/sill area of the car. I cannot state who did the previous work on the car in 2005 as the work they did was at the best poor, at the worse dangerous, some of the A panel works not actually being welded together!!! Dave has made this all good and the car will look better than before, probably ride better as well!!!

The car will feature a new bonnet from Fitchetts, after talks with Dave I decided it would be nice to do a similar mod that he has done to his mk2, that being changing the hinge design to attempt to make the car look sleeker. This will result in the car not having a front bumper, in my opinion this will make the car look better balanced as I took off the rear bumpers fitted to the car in 1984!

When I have the car back I intend to fully rebuild the front suspension, this will include refurbishing the suspension turrets and wishbones. I last did this in 1989 (!) and must admit I have been surprised how well the wishbone bushes have lasted, I used Triumph Tune Shore 90 rubber bushes, when I last looked they seemed fine. I will replace those with Superflex items.

Then its time to tear down the rear suspension, and clean that all up and maybe look to improve the interior of the car, fit a decent carpet set etc.

For the recent CT Historic Autosolo at Bovingdon I was forced to use the 2.5 and she did me proud. I won the Triumph saloon Class C, beating Steve Radley in his similar car. I was doing very well up until lunchtime, however the afternoon tests seemed a bit more intricate. Steve would have beaten me had we done a 5th and 6th Test.

I have just fitted a new head to that car, Roy Burrell cleaning up a 2500S head that I bought years ago from Andy Pearce, his porting work looks excellent. I made a mistake and supplied him with the wrong info concerning the compression ratio, so I will have to take the head off the car and get him to skim it a bit more to acheive the correct ratio of 9.5:1. However with this head in its incorrect staet the car does feel livelier, what a car it is!

I used her for the recent Oxford MC Autosolo at a Silverstone car park, however I did not do that well, coming 6th out of 7 in the Historic class. Andy Martin winning in his Vitesse, Joe Welling in his rapidly improving Spitfire 1500 coming 2nd. I think it is fair to say that the Triumphs did well impressing many of the other competitors. I did encounter a problem with the servo as the seal for the vacum pipe failed, this was remedied on the day using insulation tape. As the car is fitted with a Lockheed type 8 remote servo I fear that sourcing a seal will not be easy.

The only recent snag being that I have had to change the starter motor, this being made very difficult by the 631 exhaust manifold on the car, in fact it was a pig of a job! Next up for the car is sorting out some of the corrosion that is starting to come through and also fit the door furniture that I lazily have not fitted since the bodywork was done in 2007!!!! Next years plans are simple, use her and take part in the RBRR in the car, if ever a car was made for the RBRR it is this one, its 27mph/1000 4th gear in overdrive making the event seem relatively easy!

I am presently fitting the revvy 1300 engine and gearbox into the Spitfire, the old engine and box have gone to Dave Picton as part payment for the GT6 works. I am not a fan of the 1500 engines and hope that the 1300 engine will be more suited to the intended use of the car. Talking of the cars intended use, this years plans have been scuppered by the GT6 accident. So next year will be hopefully busier and I will get to use her in a number of Autosolos. One event I will enter is a HERO event called the Throckmorton Challenge, this being an single venue event featuring a number of tests, 19no I think and 3 or 4 regularities. This will mean that I will need to purchase a Brantz Tripmeter, the International Pro 2 's' pro looking to be the one to buy. Talking to fellow CT member Alan Petit who is an experienced Historic Rally man this event looks like it could be fun, be good to enter a Triumph team!

On the hope that the economic situation in the UK may one day improve I would also like to use the Spittie for some sprint events in the next couple of years. As with everything in life, money is the governing factor!

In early September I attended the start of the CT 10CR at The Plough, some of the cars taking part looked superb and everyone taking part looked to be full of beans and excited! To say I was upset not to be taking part would be understatement, that event being the first major CT event that I have missed in 13 years. Ellis Stokes and his team seemed to have organised and found the perfect scope for this overseas event that offered both challenging driving and a nice bit of social fun. I will be on the event in 2013. Talking of Ellis, I see that he has seen the light and bought a semi complete mk1 saloon that will take the running gear of his 2500TC ('The Red Bus' as christened by Andy Pearce), that poor car at the end of its use.

Looking around at the Triumph culture in the UK, I see that TR5s are still commanding high prices. One for sale at present that has been sympathetically modified by a northern TR expert is on the market for £35,000, blimey!!! Reckon having 3 useable Triumph cars like mine is a better bet, at todays prices I think I would make £18- 20K for them? Also, it looks like GT6s are being hyped up in price, the front of 'Classics' magazine having a nice mk3 on its cover and stating within the mag. that values are going up to over £8,000 for a decent example. Blimey, where will it all end, probably when oil runs out, in fact will all cars devalue overnight?

On that sombre thought, I'll bugger off!

27 years!

Well, what can I say. My GT6 is presently a shorter vehicle than it was. Last Sunday on the way to drop Herald parts off at Richard Brakes house, whilst in traffic light queue in Brookwood, Surrey I was hit at I think about 30mph by a young girl in her 2 year old Fiesta. This pushed me into a BMW 3 series. The resulting carnage being a very badly damaged rump, damaged wings, bent boot floor and a mangled bonnet. No panel at the rear end is salvagable. The picture of the bonnet does'nt show the damage very well, both the inner arches are damaged and the NS inner arch has sprung away from the bonnet and the whole top panle has dents. Both wings are kinked and the door gaps have closed up. Luckily the roof line is ok, damage there would almost certainly make the accident unrepairable. After the accident all I could say was '27 Years'!

The irony of this accident being that I was thinking that the little car seemed at its best since I bought the car in late 1983 just moments before it happened.

To say I am gutted is an understatement, this week has been particulary trying. I have done so much in the little car, been all over Europe in her and driven roads all over the UK, the car is such an integral part of my life. A few friends have stated that they consider the car to be a proper Club Triumph car, a massive compliment and a statement I cherish, to show this point, no GT6 has done more RBRRs: 6no.

I had the car taken home after the prang and she is currently sitting in the garage looking awful. Dave Picton of Picton Sportscars is popping over later today to have a look at her and will then provide a quotation to fix the little car.

I must thank so many who have contacted me with kind words, so thanks to James, Dave, Dave, Jason, Craig, Alex, Dale, Ellis, Tom and Dave. Also, James Cooper, Richard and Hilary Brake who came out to make sure I was ok, all within minutes of the accident. They really helped and were very kind.

Obviously my concerns are that I can get her fixed. I must admit when fixed (?) I will be very wary of driving her, this whole experience has really brought it home to me how much I value the car and how much I would hate a 'total loss' situation. Many people have said, well its only a car! Er, no it is'nt, it's far more important to me than that. I imagine many reading this will understand that point of view.

I hope that many reading this do not think I am attempting to glorify the prang in some ghoulish manner, its just that many have requested information. This blog is mainly about my Triumph motoring, this is obviously a low point.

Here comes the weekend!

Umm, the last posting states 04/05/11, I overwrote a posting I had as a draft but decided was rubbish so wrote a new blurb. Therefore it should read 29/05/11.

Found this bit of Martin Randle (my co-driver for last year) and me in the GT6 from last year's event, car sounds good eh! (I think Mike Charlton filmed this footage-thanks Mike).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OCQep4L8Ws

Right oh, Scotland here we come!

Er, Scotland here we come?

Spending sometime getting the GT6 ready for next weekend's International Auto Ecosse as organised by the Caledonian Classic Historic Motor Sport Club, must say that I am thoroughly looking forward to that event. For me last year's inaugural event ended in a disaster owing to wheel bearing failure and a 18 hour AA relay trip home. Very galling as I was very near the top of the event's placing.

The GT6 seems to be running fine, in fact that the other day I had a little tussle with a modern 911 on the Chertsey by pass, when the 911 inevitably went past at some speed, the driver gave me the thumbs up and seemed surprised by the pace of the little Triumph. The car really does seem to have a sweet spot at 5500rpm and makes a gorgeous noise at both the exhaust and at the carbs. Those stub stacks I fitted have made such a difference creating a nice bit of extra power.

MOT'd her the other day, a pass not being a problem with no advisories, so all good there! So hopefully the GT6 is ready to go to Scotland.

Other great news is that I have sold the Herald to Richard Brake's daughter Jessica. Jessica has just had a little incident in her Herald 'Mildred' and needs a car to replace her. The Coupe will fit that bill and I must say I think Jessica has a bargain.

I had hoped to go to Duxford today, but a number of things have conspired to make that awkward, so I will stay at home, fiddle with the GT6 and watch the Monaco GP. The GP season does feel abit phoney what with all the overtaking aids, however one real stand out has been the quality of Brundle and Coulthard's commentary, authoritive without being all nerdy!

Absolutely gutted to see that one of my favourite singers Gil Scott Heron has passed on, I just love some of his music: 'The Bottle', 'The revolution will not be televised', 'Home is where the hatred is' and 'Pieces of a man' having such strong lyrical messages. First got into his music back in the early 80s and have continued to enjoy, must admit I found last years 'I'm new here' a bit difficult, but still well worth a listen and just chuffed that he could still make music. Scott-Heron had been a frequent jailbird (drug busts) and had massive problems with drugs so the last 20 years for him cannot have been easy, hope he has now found some peace.

On the subject of music I have been thrilled by this year's releases by P J Harvey and Radiohead, nice that quality music is still being made. Been interesting to see that Adele has been such a hit in the States, her lyrics being so English. I like her and admire her stance on celebrity, just need reading that she will never use her music to sell products for corporations-refreshing in these days of sell out and the chasing of the dollar at any expense.

Another long weekend

Been nice enjoying another weekend of 4 days, and have done a few of the jobs that I want to do to the Spitfire before next Sunday's Oxford MC 'Bocardo' Autosolo that is once again being held at a Silverstone car park.

The biggest job being the fitment of the roll over bar that I bought from Dave Pearson, this being a hard used Aleybars Clubmans type bar with a fixed diagonal, exactly the same as the one fitted to the GT6. Aleybars were bought in the mid 80s by Safety Devices, the UKs largest roll over bar/cage manufacteur, the only problem with this bar (as the one in the GT6) is that the tubes are of a too small diameter for some types of competitive motorsport, however for 'solos, sprinting etc it would be ok. I was going to get the bar blasted and powder coated by my brother in laws company in Colnbrook, but decided that for now she will be fine in her slightly scratched matt black finish.

The other jobs I have done are fit some 330lb front springs and larger diameter wheel studs. Fitting these studs is a pain as one has to take the brake discs off the wheel hubs to get the things into place, obviously necessitating taking the whole hub assemby off the stub axles etc. The picture above shows the car before the 330 springs were fitted.

The car looks better as it sits nice and level now, however I am not too happy with the front handling as it feels light at speed. I aim to fit the Canley Classics tubular front wishbones I have in the shed, some 480lb springs and will polybush the bottom wishbones, hopefully this will tie the front end down. Using the top wishbones I hope to be able to dial in some negative camber, 1.5 degrees being a starting figure.

One of the other things I dislike about the car is the way the rear end can be deflected when a small pothole or road irregularity is hit. To this end I think a set of Jigsaw's adjustable radius arms fitted with some nylon bushes I have may cure this problem. These radius arms seem a good idea to enable me to get the suspension checked to see how straight the car is running, I am not sure about faffing about with the standard system of shim use at a wheel alignment garage. A better fix will be the use of some Canley CV driveshafts and lower wishbones , I have a set of rotoflex vertical links to go with these. This would necessitate the welding of the wishbone mount onto the chassis and the radius arm mount onto the heelboard. At present, this is outside my budget so I will have to wait until next year to implement these changes. Of course whilst at it I might as well fit a LSD diff!!!!

A first for this weekend was that I drove the car without the soft top on her, at first I must admit I felt a bit self concious, but after a bit I must admit I quite liked driving her like that.

Yesterday was spent at Prescott hillclimb track watching a round of the Paul Matty Sportscars hillclimb series. I went along with my old friend Jon Stevens in his recently purchased AMG Merc CLK, this being one of the fastest things I have been in as it develops about 350BHP, what a car! Some of the cars at Prescott were truely mouth-watering, lots of Gould single seat hillclimb cars that featured Hayabusa engines and some very nice old Lotus single seaters. As ever I was attracted to the historic saloons, a couple of very nice 105 series Alfas, Mini Coopers and Lotus Cortinas. Also 3 Frogeye Sprites were taking part, be interesting to see how the Spitfire would cope with them! All in all a good day. One of the stand out events at Prescott is the VSCC event that is usually held in August, this always features lots of excellent old cars, Bugattis, Bentleys, Rileys etc. I may have to wander on down to watch that event. Excuse the lack of photos, forgot the camera!

This week entails a day working on Sptfire next Saturday in preparation for Sundays 'solo. Also I must start getting the interior out of the GT6 ready to pull the gearbox so as to enable the fitment of the new clutch I have bought from Canleys. The IAE is coming up fast!

Nothing to report on the Saloon, head still with Roy.

CSMA Autosolo and other mumblings!

A busy Triumph time at present.

Last weekend was the first event in the Club Triumph Autosolo Mini Series, I entered using the GT6 and shared the car with James Carruthers.

I started well even with the timing being well out-something I could not work out as she ran perfectly well to Bovingdon from Chertsey? I had to advance the ignition by some 8 degrees, very strange. After the first Test I was leading the Class B Historics and all the Club Triumph cars. After that it all seemed to go awry and as I sort of expected, Mike Helm started to claw back the times and eventually acheived the best Triumph times. Paul Hughes showing some demon oversteer beat me to win Class B Historics.

All the Triumph drivers did very well, James Cooper, Joe Welling, Andy Martin and James Carruthers all showing that they are fast drivers and will be competitive this year in the series. I have decided that I must use the Spitfire, so will now attempt to get that ready for the forthcoming Oxford MC Bocardo Autosolo at Silverstone. At present only 5 Triumph cars are entered for that event, I hope we get a few more?

Anyway, well done to Mike Helm for beating us all, he's some driver!

Otherwise I have to change the Clutch on the GT6 for the June 'International Auto Ecosse' , I have ordered the parts from Canleys and hope that they will arrive tail end of next week. The car did disgrace itself at Bovingdon when the starter solenoid packed up, so I had to fit another one this week. I have stated this before, but I really enjoy driving the GT6, its such a good old thing, and after 27 years, driving her is second nature.

I have now taken the head off the 2.5, I need to measure the depth from the block surface to the top of each piston at TDC, these figures will be given to Roy Burrell who is preparing the 2.5S head I bought years ago from Andy Pearce. On stripping this head I found that it has Chris Witor 'penny on a stick' stainless steel valves, bronze guides and A series oil seals. Roy is going to do a minor bit of combustion chamber work and reduce the height of the head so I can run a 9.75:1 compression ratio. He will also fit hardened exhaust valve seats to prevent valve recession. The head I have taken off is showing up to 1.5mm on some valves, still not quite up to the 2.5mm that Craig Gingell's head has shown!!!

Then its back to some 10CR work for the car. I took James Cooper and Richard Brake up to The Plough the other night and they were laughing at the state of the door furniture all held in place with split pins and the like. Also the front passenger dear locking mechanism has failed, this results in the driver assuming Chauffeur duties and rushing around to open the door for the passenger!!! 10CR co-driver dave Kent has told me that he will pop over and help put the doors back together with me, he recklons I am a lazy sod, not wrong there Dave!!!

Also I have started to price up the cost of fitting the Lucas pi gear back on the car. I have decided that I do not want to use a Lucas pump, so will go the way of many a PI owner and fit a Bosch pump and gubbins!

By the way I love the photo at the top of this posting, James Carruthers took the photo, I like the way it is out of focus at the front and clear at the back.

HCR and all that!

Well that was interesting, had a fun night's driving with Doug and Katie. The old car went well, apart from running abit rich-well in fact very rich! Jeez, fuel is expensive eh!

The event seemed quite weird. It started at about 06.30 when I missed two calls from Doug and Katie that would have told me that Doug had blown his Passatt up near Manchester. Doug was driving down from JOG where he had dropped a nephew off who was undertaking a bike ride to Paris in aid of a charity that supports Hodgkinson's disease. So it was arranged that Katie and I would meet up with Andy Martin and Michael Stern at Andy's house and then we would go to pick Doug up at a motorway service area. This ended up being Hopwood services on the M42. Anyrate we made the start venue at the Old Stone Trough, poor Doug looked shattered after his antics-still these Foremans are hardy creatures!

Once up in Lancashire, Katie drove the car for the first time for a mile or two to get used to the car, as the first part of the HCR was a Test, and Katie was driving we thought she had better drive the old car. Considering that her only experience of a saloon was driving Fred Slezak's mk1, to come 4th in this Test was top stuff-well done Katie. The event then consisted of driving around the UK attempting to get to all the Counties and venues indicated upon the listing that Dale Barker had given us. We were shocked to see that from Barnoldswick we had to visit various reservoirs that serve Manchester and Lancashire, then go to Nottingham and Lincolnshire and end up in Shropshire at Telford-blimey!! Once we had visited the Reservoirs, time was short so we decided to skip Notts and Lincs and get to Telford, which the car did with ease, in fact we were the first car at Telford! the car was not pulling full revs, so I had taken off the restrictive aftermarket air filter, this released some air and gave us more power. Bloomin' nice to see Dave Kent up at Telford, he's good lad is Dave really keen on CT events. Also withn him was his faithful dog called Brandy, she looks abit older than when they took part in the HCR last, but is still going strongely.

Doug and Katie had alternated the sleep up to this point, however Doug was still knackered so it was decided that Katie would drive and I would nav. This next section was great fun, trailing down to A483, A470, A479 and A40 towards South Wales, we had to visit various Castles on the way, all accomplished with ease. Katie was throwing the old car around with verve and seemed to be having a laugh! Before leaving Wales we used a great RBRR road, the A466 from Monmouth to Chepstow, for my mind one of the great UK roads if driven in the middle of the night. So far it had all been a bit weird, Katie when not driving, she had been 'flat out' on her iphone and had bathed the car interior with blue light from the device, and Doug kept waking up and appearing like some spectral vision in the back (Doug as many know is a big unit and takes up alot of the rear seat space),I started to think the 2.5 was haunted! Also for most of the night we had been experiencing a methane problem, reckon Doug had been at the scotch pies when in Scotland. One of the issues with the car is that I had put new door window seals into her, this caused the front windows to fall out of their guiding mechanism, making it tough to push the windows up or down, gotta say I wish I had sorted this problem out. Sound affects were added using the squeaky passengerr seat belt reels, yep, we were aboard the 'Fart Express'! Next was the M4/M24/A12 section to finish through dusk.I fell asleep at this point and was surprised to find out that whilst asleep Katie and Doug had been having fun, the car had gone up to highly illegal 3 figure sum. This car is fitted with a 28% J type overdrive and 3.45:1 diff, this results in 112mph at 4K in overdrive top-mile eater eh!

When back at Woodbridge, Katie drove the car in the second test, she has obviously got these saloon cars worked out as she came second on the timed section, however for the distance part of the test she could not see the cone and slightly mis-judged the distance from the bumper to the cone resluting in a 5th or 6th place. It was fascinating to see the car being thrown about and I had no qualms about letting her drive the car like this, the car sounds good. So that was the 2011 HCR, I have now done all of them and must say I do enjoy the event. Back in 2005 I found out about a 70/80s CT event called the 20 County Challenge, so we decided to run the event in 2005. The HCR is a evolution of that event. Dale Barker has now organised the last 4 number and has decided that a rest is needed. Ellis Stokes, Mike Helm and Andy Martin will organise the 2012 event, be great to see more CT types taking part.

After this event I have decided that I must sort out the cronic valve seat recession the car is suffering from. With this in mind I have taken the 2.5S head I bought from Andy Pearce to Roy Burrell this morning and have asked him to stick in some hardened valve seats, reduce the depth of the head to raise the compression ratio and do some mild porting. The head has stainless steel valves, bronze guides and A series valve seals. Should give the car abit more go, this should help on the forthcoming 10CR.

One mistake I made for the HCR was to take too much stuff, the boot was full!!! 3 up with this load made the car feel sluggish, 'turn in' was affected by this mistake. I will attempt to do the 10CR with a lighter load-I hope Doug may try this next time!!! It was good fun doing this event with the Foremans, they are a funny pair, at various points it was difficult to drive and concentrate as we laughing so much! Next year, I imagine Katie and Doug will be using their mk1 saloon, I will miss their company. That car should be something!

Next up is the CSMA Autosolo, I have entered using the Spitfire, however I would like to use the GT6 so will spend tomorrow working on that car. A few jobs need to be done: 1. Rebuild the clutch master cylinder. 2. Change gearbox mounts 3. Fit new propshaft 4. Change diff mounts 5. Re-fit the interior. A busy day then, so reckon I need to get some sleep!!! This edition of my blog does not seem to like paragraphs-I will sort this out asap-sorry!

HCR: A hard days night!

This weekend sees the running of the Club Triumph Historic County Run (HCR), as organised by Dale Barker and Andrew Martin. This event improves every time it is run and I must say I am looking forward to the weekend.

For this year I have entered the event with Doug Foreman and Katie Foreman, obviously we will be using the 2.5 saloon. This is now running very nicely, James Cooper popped over and after scolding me about not tightening the link bar we managed to get the old thing running very nicely. I have reverted to the use of a mechanical fuel pump as I would like to use the HUCO electric pump on the Spitfire. It has been great fun using the Saloon, owing to its high gearing it is able to 'mix' it with moderns on the M25. I always get looked at weirdly by some as I go steaming past, its almost as if some think that one should not drive an old car at modern day driving speeds?

For the HCR Doug will be sharing the road driving with me, however Katie is to drive the 'Tests'. It will be interesting to see how Katie does, she is very experienced at competitive driving in Heralds and GT6s, however the big saloon is a larger machine and she may find it a bit bulky. However as I have found out at Autosolos, she has a talent that should enable her to make light of the saloons larger dimensions. Hope so, as Doug and me did the best time on last year's HCR test!

I have been driving the Spitfire recently and I must say I have enjoyed the experience. A new exhaust should be winging its way down to me soon, so I will hope to fit this before the forthcoming CSMA Concorde Autosolo at Bovingdon. James Carruthers is sharing the car and I welcome his opinion on the car. James is very good at being able to analysis a car's performance and identify improvements. Bit worried about using the present engine as it has a long stroke Triumph 4 pot at present, it would be prudent to fit a rev limiter! When taking part in these 'solo events, one's attention is fully taken by looking for the next cone position and thinking about the line one should drive. To worry about the engine speed is an unecessary problem and will result in slightly slower speeds. I understand that alot of CT members are taking part in this event and I look forward to meeting up with lots of friends and ultimately beating them!!!!! James has started work on his mk3 Spitfire which has the potential to be a fast car, he hopes to get her up to Scotland for the IAE.

I have also entered the Oxford MC 'Bocardo' Autosolo, this will be my 5th Bocardo and I hope to do well, looks like the main 'Historic' competition will be from Mike and Matt Helm as not too many CT members are entering. Oxford MC run a superb event, the whole event being well streamlined and easily understood by entrants new to the event.

Whilst talking about Autosolos, I cannot wait for the CT event to be held at Bovingdon, this will hopefully build upon the very successful 2009 and 2011 events. Its great to see so many CT members having a go at competitive Club motorsport.

So off we go, the next 7 months offer some superb chances for fun and fast driving in the old cars, excellent!

Where does the time go?

A rather belated posting.

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, mainly getting stuck into work or work for the car club. Therefore the cars have suffered. I have done nothing to the GT6, she is still in the garage waiting the fitment of a new gearbox mount and other bits and pieces in the vain hope of curing the vibration that started just before the 2010 RBRR.

On the subject of the RBRR, bloomin' overjoyed that all the entrants have managed to scrape together a staggering £50K for MIND. Last Saturday was the CT Annual Dinner held at a Hilton at Milton Keynes, we presented the cheque to Rachael fom MIND and I think all had a great evening out. As is the way with CT social evenings, many seemed to enjoy having a drink, many matching the intoxication of Rolduc on the 10CR!!!! Mentioning Rolduc, I am really looking forward to the 10CR, talking with Ellis it looks like he will have done the usual high standard job and be able to offer us some superb driving roads. I have done all of the previous 3 official CT events and the inaugural event in 2003 and have enjoyed them all. However the last one was special, luckily I had teamed up with Dave Kent, if anyone wants to do an event with someone who knows the way to drive these long distance events, get Dave to co-drive. We were 'blessed' with dizzy problems and I am sure that without Dave's never say die attitude the 2.5 Pi (SU) would have been shipped home. I hope to have been able to prep. the car better this time, however finding time for the cars these days is getting increasingly difficult-Dave bring the spanners!


On the subject of the saloon, I am a bit down hearted at present, I cannot get the car to run that well. Underload she just does not want to 'rev out', quite happy when in neutral? I have decided to go back to basics with her and fully tune the car, starting with a compression test, valve clearances etc. I have just taken delivery of some new carb spindles and butterflies from Andrew Turner, the fitted butterflies have those awful anti-run on poppet valves fitted. Othewise the car is fine, she passed the MOT test the other day, this followed an evening of welding by James Cooper around the base of the 'B' post, James is a top bloke and bloody keen!


The Spitfire is proving to have been an inspired purchase, bloomin' fantastic little car that cannot help but bring a smile to one's mouth when being driven. I have yet to drive the car with the roof down, however I used to feel a little self concious when I used to drive my previous convertible with the roof down, this was my first car a Vitesse mk2, still older now and it does seem that as one gets older one starts to not give a toss! I have entered the forthcoming CSMA Autosolo at Bovingdon and will be sharing the car with James Carruthers, it will be interesting to see how we do-can I cope with a car that handles but is not as fast-a worry! The Autosolo events start to come thick and fast as the Oxford MC 'Bocardo' event at a Silverstone car parkis due in early May. I have taken part in the past 3 'Bocardos' and cannot wait for this event, always slickly organised and lots of superb machinery! I have number of jobs to do to her, these include fitting some nylon bushes to the radius arms and the roll over bar I purchased from Dave Pearson, I also need to drop the front of the car as she is a tadge high at the front. As previously written I bought the car from Dave Picton, boy oh boy I saw his latest creation at Stoneleigh. This is a gorgeous mk2 GT6 that has a 2.5Pi lump in her-fit a nicely tuned revvy 2000cc engine Dave-you don't need torque. Dave has fitted deep dished 6J wires and de-bumpered the front and rear, this coupled with strategically placed driving lights creates a mini Ferrari 250SWB look, this might sound crass, but the car is in my opinion the best GT6 I have yet to see. The stance is correct and some of the details such as cream writing for the number plate letters/numerals are inspired (These 'plates' coupled with the maroon paint give off a slight pre-war Alfa look), nice one Dave! I will take some snaps soon and post on here, she really is a beauty. I have always thought that the mk2 GT6 was Triumph's best looking car and this one re-iterates this opinion.

Here are a couple of poor pictures of the Spitfire!

2011!

Jeez, how did this happen-2011, my fiftieth year on the planet! Some sage stated that time goes quicker and quicker as one gets older-he's not wrong!

Car stuff:
Just spent 3 sessions working on the cars and I have managed a few tasks as follows:

GT6:
Stripped out the dashboard and gearbox tunnel to enable access so that I can change the gearbox mount and renew the seals on the speedo drive. All very simple work, I have stripped this part of the car alot of times over the last 27 years and I reckon I could do it with my eyes shut! Whilst working I noticed that the Clutch master cylinder had dropped all its fluid over the carpet, so I took that off and will re-new the seals once these have purchased from Canleys. I also took the opportunity of cleaning back the bulkhead around the base of the master cylinder and painted this with Finnegans No.1 and then some matt black paint I had on the shelf-not too worried about appearance at present. One day I will strip the bulkhead and paint properly.

Whilst working on the car, James Cooper popped over in his Mk1 GT6. He had just done a engine swap and was complaining that he had no real power, we firstly carried out a compression test (All ranging between 155-165psi), then suspecting carburation issues we did all the usuals, cleaned out the carbs and balanced them. Nothing seemed wrong. James had re-set the timing and the AC Delco dizzy seemed ok, must admit I did not rate the plug leads as they seemed loose. James has a spare set so will fit them and check the valve clearances once the engine cooled once he got home. Like many of us, James has too many Triumph cars and is spread too thin (Bit rich coming from me eh). However he is a man of discernment and owns a royal Blue mk1 Pi saloon, this used to be owned by Bob Maddocks and did the 98 and 2000 RBRRs. Since purchase, James has put sills on both sides of the car and made many other bodywork repairs and once re-painted it will look the bees knees. It was painted the other month, but was rushed by the paint shop that James chose, nice to report that they have agreed to paint the car again. Whilst chatting in the garage having a cuppa, we struck up a nice deal, James having the spare mk1 bonnet that I have and me getting a set of early mk3 GT6 seats. These will be used in the Spitfire-out of period, but alot better at holding me in place compared to the poor condition mk2 seats presently within the car.
It is nice knowing that James and Richard Brake are fairly local, both are resourceful people and always willing to help out when problems happen.

Spitfire mk2
Had a list of jobs to do on the little car, the main ones being:
A) Fit mocal oil cooler
B) Fit stick on number plates
C) Tale out the CD player
The first job seemed to be going well, I had bought a kit with pre-cut braided hoses and casually decided to fit the oil cooler where I fitted one to a Spitfire 1500 I worked on years ago-this was great until I attempted to attempted to fit the smaller hose, too blasted short. Therefore I moved the rad backwards towards the water radiator and upside down as this seemed to be the only way I could fit the kit-why are oil coolers always a pain? The GT6 has rubber hoses and I think I will go back to using those next time, never had a problem with rubber hoses in 25 years. Many will question the use of a oil cooler, I think they are essential and definitely help increase the longevity of an engine
Number plates: Blimey, this job went well! The car looks so much better with the regular sized plate stuck across the bonnet -'E-Type' style. Dave Picton had put a small stick on plate onto the car, in all the time I have known Dave I have not known him show such a lack of taste-I think I know why though!
CD Player: This had been put into the car by the guy who owned the car before Dave, god only knows why as it is impossible to hear the thing especially with the wheelbarrow exhaust that presently is under the car. Now I am partial to soul music and do like the strong vocals of the late 50s and early 60s singer Wilson Pickett, but someone had jammed a Pickett compilation CD into the machine and everytime I started the car I would get a blast of the first track, 'If you need me', I started to get really fatigued by this track. Also the CD player seemed to be controlled by some form of higher entity (Maybe, Wilson coming back to haunt me), everytime I hit a bump in the road the volume would go up, or worse still if switched off it would switch itself on, got to say I have started to loathe Wilson! I would not have minded but the CD player only wanted to play that one track-why? Listening to music has always been a major pleasure of mine and when driving the Focus, I always have my ipod connected to the stereo, however in the old cars I find it impossible to listen to music so none of the old cars have radios or the like.
Whilst under the dashboard I cleared out some extranous wiring, all old cars seems to have this stuff, reckons bodgers during the 70s using scotchlocks are to blame, reckon many a car hit an early death owing to these devilish pieces of plastic and metal.
I also changed the throttle cable as the old one did not seem that progressive, making it difficult to drive the car smoothly at low engine speeds.
I also had a good look at the carbs, paying particular attention to the float chambers, these had a fair amount of crap in them, so I will fit a small fuel filter.

I took the car down to the New Years Eve lunch that CT member Nick Jackson organises at a picturesque pub in Woodford, near Salisbury. I met up with James Carruthers in his megasquirted 2000 and James Cooper in his mk1 Pi saloon just of the M25 at Chertsey, and took them down one of my favourite roads the old A30 that runs from Popley to Stockbridge and onto Salisbury. I have a theory that Triumphs should always be driven down single carriageway A roads when one gets the chance, the A30 along this stretch really does hit the spot. Coming out of Stockbridge, there is a sharp right hand turn on a nice inclined bit of road, the little Spitfire went round the corner and up the hill very well and I think surprised both James in their faster saloons.
James' 2000 is turning into a real beastie, I helped him purchase this car and have always had a soft spot for the machine. Megasquirt seems to have transformed the car, I must get him to let me have a drive at some point. When he purchased the car the previous owner was worried that James was going to thrash the nuts of the thing, well I think it is fair to say that he has/is!
Its fascinating to see what lots of CT members do to their cars, all seem to be in a constant state of modification, some like James' 2000 turning into impressive machines.
Got to say the NYE lunch is always very pleasant, a great opportunity to have one final drive and meet up with CT friends before the end of the year. I was pleased to see Nick Jones and his family in his recently acquired 2.5Pi mk2 plus Alex Chandler in his 2000 mk1 and Mark Bland in his very nice early 2000 mk1. That was the first time I have seen Alex's car and it just goes to show what can be done with enthusiasm, a top car that needs to be used on next years RBRR-are you reading this Alex?
On the way back James, James and Alex seemed to enjoy chasing each other up the A303, what a great sight, 3 mk1 saloons being driven with verve! The little Spitfire's top end is not all that great, so I stayed back and cruised home, a nice relaxing way of ending a day out and about.

Back to the Spitfire, I like this car, reckon its a 'keeper'! The car is looking better sitting on its 5.5J solid steels and correct number plates. I will post some pics soon, just need to take the camera out with me!